Changing the Rules
I host a couple locations for bar trivia, twice a week. Since January, the teams have been participating in league play: their scores for 14 weeks - yes, 14 weeks - are added up, making rankings for each location. Then, as the trivia newsletter email states (here's one from March):
"We are bringing back the league prizes, $75 for 1st place $50 for 2nd and $25 for 3rd. The top 3-5 teams from each play-off location will move on to the "Grand Championship" to compete for more cash. (tentatively $250, $150, $100)"
Clearly, there are prizes for each location, plus higher prizes for a single-day tournament. Cool.
There was a subtle change in last week's email:
"We are going to take the top teams from each location and send them to compete against the top teams from another location in the Hartford area. [...] The league cash prizes are, $75 for 1st place $50 for 2nd and $25 for 3rd. "
Nothing's mentioned as prizes for the tournament, but at least those prizes for being the best over 4 months of trivia are there, plus there must be something for the tournament. This week's email doesn't mention any prize values at all, it just announces the championship date and place. I asked my boss, who's in charge of all this, and he says that there are no prizes for each location; the only prizes are for the championship game. Also, any teams that want to play can participate in league play can do so. This is apparently for attendance reasons; most locations have fairly poor turnout, so the tournament game would actually not be so different from a regular night of trivia.
So there was no point at all in having league play. Either it was a sham all along to boost attendance, convincing teams to attend when there was no reason beyond that night, or he changed the rules of the game very recently. Either way, that's not cool. Some teams changed strategy some nights to ensure a safe league score rather than risk for a better one-night score. There were point-boost incentives for going to multiple locations. I didn't know about this until yesterday, assuming that the rules that have been stated for four months would still apply, and so I've been keeping the teams invested in league standings, even coming armed with up-to-date rankings last week, reiterating the prizes. I am not looking forward to the backlash from the competitive teams at my location. I will tell them that it's not my fault, I'm just the messenger, but that's not going to make them any happier. Next week my boss will be at that location in person, helping with the championship game, and maybe he'll take it out on him then, I don't know. My boss has outright stated that he hates trivia, and presumably other game-ish things; he's in charge of trivia only because he heard he could make some money for his struggling DJ company. I'm in the opposite boat, since I love games and like trivia, and don't really care about making money very much. We'll see how this works out.
"We are bringing back the league prizes, $75 for 1st place $50 for 2nd and $25 for 3rd. The top 3-5 teams from each play-off location will move on to the "Grand Championship" to compete for more cash. (tentatively $250, $150, $100)"
Clearly, there are prizes for each location, plus higher prizes for a single-day tournament. Cool.
There was a subtle change in last week's email:
"We are going to take the top teams from each location and send them to compete against the top teams from another location in the Hartford area. [...] The league cash prizes are, $75 for 1st place $50 for 2nd and $25 for 3rd. "
Nothing's mentioned as prizes for the tournament, but at least those prizes for being the best over 4 months of trivia are there, plus there must be something for the tournament. This week's email doesn't mention any prize values at all, it just announces the championship date and place. I asked my boss, who's in charge of all this, and he says that there are no prizes for each location; the only prizes are for the championship game. Also, any teams that want to play can participate in league play can do so. This is apparently for attendance reasons; most locations have fairly poor turnout, so the tournament game would actually not be so different from a regular night of trivia.
So there was no point at all in having league play. Either it was a sham all along to boost attendance, convincing teams to attend when there was no reason beyond that night, or he changed the rules of the game very recently. Either way, that's not cool. Some teams changed strategy some nights to ensure a safe league score rather than risk for a better one-night score. There were point-boost incentives for going to multiple locations. I didn't know about this until yesterday, assuming that the rules that have been stated for four months would still apply, and so I've been keeping the teams invested in league standings, even coming armed with up-to-date rankings last week, reiterating the prizes. I am not looking forward to the backlash from the competitive teams at my location. I will tell them that it's not my fault, I'm just the messenger, but that's not going to make them any happier. Next week my boss will be at that location in person, helping with the championship game, and maybe he'll take it out on him then, I don't know. My boss has outright stated that he hates trivia, and presumably other game-ish things; he's in charge of trivia only because he heard he could make some money for his struggling DJ company. I'm in the opposite boat, since I love games and like trivia, and don't really care about making money very much. We'll see how this works out.